


A burning desire (to bake a decent cake)

by vivaldis_lover



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Baking, Day 13 - Party, M/M, Sheith Month 2017, There's some suggestive finger sucking, hinted Hance, shameless fluff, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 21:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11791785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivaldis_lover/pseuds/vivaldis_lover
Summary: In preparation for Keith's birthday, Shiro is forced to face his poor baking skills. Luckily, his boyfriend is always there to help him





	A burning desire (to bake a decent cake)

**Author's Note:**

> I can't even bring myself to write something angsty about these two, so get a load of that fluff. Hope you like this contribuiton to sheith month.

Shiro looked at the results of his baking attempt. They were disappointing. Well, disappointing was probably a weak world. The cake was a disaster. He was sure he had messed up the ingredients. He had heated up the oven too much, thinking the cake would have been baked faster, but he had left it in for too long. The burnt mess lay on the table. Shiro felt like it was judging him.

His baking skills were already pretty poor and, since he was in space, he had to make the best he could out of ingredients that were, more or less, comparable to flour, sugar and all the things he needed.

Hunk had told him to just follow the instructions. Sounded easy, in theory. In practice, he kept on making mistakes, even when he followed the instructions step by step. He and baking clearly didn’t get along.

He tried to scrap off the burnt parts, but there was little to save there. Hunk would have probably told him to dust the results of the scraping with powdered sugar. He decided to give it a shot, but because of its shape, the cake ended up looking like a snow-capped mountain.

He needed someone to help him.

His intention was to look for Hunk and bake something with him. He really wanted to make Keith’s birthday a special occasion. But if he couldn’t even put together a cake, he didn’t hold a lot of hope on the success of the party. With a sigh, he emerged from the kitchen and went looking for his friend.

He was expecting to find him in the room where the paladins usually met, but there was only Keith there. He was reading something on one of Pidge’s latest creation, spread out on the sofa.

“Oh, Shiro! What do you need?”

Keith was in a relaxed mood, as indicated by the fact that he was not wearing his jacket and his belt, and by the leg dangling from the edge of the couch.

“I was looking for Hunk, but clearly he’s not here. Maybe he is in his room,” he said.

“He is,” replied Keith. “But if I were you, I wouldn’t disturb him.”

“Why?” asked Shiro.

Keith smirked. “Eh! He has… company.”

Shiro meditated a few seconds on the statement. “You mean?...”

“Lance.”

Shiro nodded. Of course. How could he have missed that? His mind was probably too focused on him and Keith at the moment to notice the romances happening between other members of the team.

They hadn’t been together for long, although the others argued that they acted like a couple even before the actual confessions. Surprisingly, it had been Keith the one to confess first. Despite his difficult relationship with feelings, he had had more courage than Shiro, once he had realized he was in love with him. Shiro, on the other hand, had found himself lost. At the Garrison they didn’t teach you how to confess your feelings to someone.

“I really needed his help, though,” complained Shiro, sitting near Keith’s head.

“With what?”

“Your birthday cake,” he explained.

Keith moaned, blushed and put a hand on his face. “I told you lot, you don’t need to do this.”

“You never had a birthday party! You were expecting me to ignore it?” asked Shiro. “It’s nothing wild, really. Just a cake, a couple of gifts and some drinking. Also…”

He stopped. Keith knew what he wanted to say. They hadn’t been able to ever celebrate Keith’s birthday together. Shiro had always been the one pushing for that idea and then he had had to leave for the Kerberos mission before they could. And then he had gone missing.

Now they were finally back together and he hadn’t forgotten about the promise made to Keith. To have a birthday party, at least once. That was also the reason why, although he complained every once in a while, Keith was not stopping him from organizing that party. He remembered how important it was for Shiro, to find something to celebrate together.

And while he hated admitting it, he loved being the center of Shiro’s attention.

“Well,” he said, putting his head on Shiro’s thighs. “I could help you with the cake.”

Shiro shook his head. “That’s not an option. It’s _your_ birthday. You’re not allowed to think about anything, since _we_ decided to throw you a party.”

“Oh, c’mon,” lazily protested Keith. “I’m a decent baker and judging from the smell coming from the kitchen, you really need help. And Hunk is too busy with Lance now. We don’t want to disturb them, right?”

Shiro raised an eyebrow.

“It’s gonna be fun!” insisted Keith.

Shiro wanted to oppose him, but then he saw Keith’s cheeky smile and his defenses crumbled. “Okay,” he sighed. “You can help me.”

Keith jumped on his feet and headed towards the kitchen. “Let’s get to work then!”

Shiro looked, with a smile, at his boyfriend’s back, as he walked away. Then he followed him.

When he came into the room, he found Keith already wearing an apron. He threw one at him, too.

“Wear this. Better not get dirty.”

“You know, for someone who’s not really into having a birthday party, the idea of baking a cake seem to entertain you.”

Keith smiled, as he took out all the baking tools he needed. “Back at the shack, cooking was one of the chores I actually enjoyed doing. Even more now that I get to do it with you.”

That line, said so casually, threw Shiro off for a moment. It was rare for him to hear Keith being so open, even after they had started dating. He came up beside him, with a fond smile on his face.

“So,” he said. “Where do we start?”

Keith had placed all the ingredients he needed in front of him. There was a recipe that he knew, of which he had learn the instructions, back when he still hoped to get an actual party. But he had always been too busy being passed from one foster home to another. His continuous transfers, coupled with the fact that he was unable to establish a normal human interaction, had lead to him never getting a proper birthday.

“Ok, first, I want you to slice all these fruits,” he said.

He gave Shiro a couple of big, round fruits, with a thick peel, three orange ones, that were so soft, he was afraid of accidentally squishing them, and a long, green one.

“Don’t be afraid of messing up the orange ones, those are gonna be put between the two layers,” he explained. “But try to make the others look nice, they’re gonna decorate the cake.”

“Roger that.”

He had a feeling Keith was keeping him away from the preparation of the mixture, but he didn’t mind, as long as he could be useful. He started cutting the orange fruits and put the bits in a bowl. Cutting stuff was not hard, he could do it without messing up anything.

While slicing the red fruits, he glanced at Keith, who was measuring the ingredients with a concentrated look on his face. He was clearly very experienced in the field. Just to be a jerk, his brain reminded him that it was because he had had to live in the desert alone for a year.

Keith noticed that he was staring at him. “What?”

“You look…”

He paused. _“Beautiful,”_ he thought.

Keith tilted his head. “Yeah?”

“Professional,” finished Shiro.

Keith smirked, stirring the thick mixture. The muscles in his right arm tensed up, as he moved the wooden spoon in the bowl. For a few moments Shiro couldn’t stop staring.

“I have the feeling-” said Keith, looking for a baking tray “- that _professional_ was not the word you were thinking.”

Shiro laughed. “Busted.”

“So,” continued Keith, putting the mixture in the baking tray. “ _What_ were you thinking?”

“That you look like a mom,” replied Shiro.

Keith burst out laughing, almost spilling the mixture. “So now I’m promoted to the rank of _soccer mom_?”

“Only if the cake is good.”

They put the baking tray in the oven and sat on the floor in front of it, as Keith explained what they had to do next.

“I’ll cut the cake in half, so we can spread the fruits and whipped cream – or that thing that resembles whipped cream – in the middle of the two layers. And then, we’ll have left only the decoration to do.”

“Should we start whipping the cream, now?” asked Shiro.

“No, better do it at the last moment.”

Keith grabbed the bowl where he had previously prepared the mixture and stared at what remained of it.

“Do you think this is safe to eat?” he asked.

Shiro shrugged. Keith tentatively picked some of the mixture up on his index and licked it. Shiro couldn’t take his eyes off Keith’s tongue, as it flicked and tasted the batter.

“How does it taste?”

“Good,” said Keith, after a moment. He picked up some more and he moved his hand closer to Shiro’s face, without thinking.

“Wanna try it?”

Shiro looked at Keith’s hand and then into his eyes, taken aback by Keith’s sudden boldness. Keith then realized what he was doing and turned into an interesting shade of red.

“Nevermind, I-” he tried to say.

Before he could finish, Shiro grabbed his hand and put Keith’s finger into his mouth, slowly licking the batter off his index. He didn’t break eye contact, not even for a moment, as he lazily passed his tongue over Keith’s finger. That way, he saw Keith’s face quickly go through shock, embarrassment and then acceptance. Eventually a grin made his way on his face.

At that point Shiro let go of his hand.

“Tastes good,” he said.

“I bet it does,” replied Keith.

The timer ringed, making both of them jump in surprise. Keith turned off the oven and took the cake out. The top had a nice, dark golden color, and the smell was great. They left it to cool for a few minutes, as Shiro whipped the cream – another thing he was not going to mess up –, then Keith cut off part of the top to make it even. He gave Shiro a piece of the cut off part to taste.

“It’s amazing!” he said with his mouth full. “You earned the title of soccer mom, Keith.”

Keith laughed, cutting the cake into two layers.

“Can you pass me the orange fruits?”

Shiro gave him the bowl and sat in front of Keith, watching him as he spread the whipped cream on the bottom layer and then distributed the chopped fruits on it.

He still couldn’t believe it. He and Keith. Together. They were _boyfriends_. He felt his heart swell with affection, as Keith finished assembling the cake and started covering it with the rest of the whipped cream.

“Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?” he blurted out, before he could stop himself.

Keith almost lost his grip over the second bowl of sliced fruits. He quickly put it down beside the cake, as he tried to form a complete sentence, fighting the heat spreading on his face. They both avoided each other’s eyes for a few moments, Shiro too embarrassed by his own lack of self-control.

“Not… really,” managed to say Keith.

They both stared at the cake, slowly regaining their composure.

“Well,” said Shiro, slowly. “I should have done it sooner.”

Keith smiled. “Just help me decorate the cake, will you?”

Keith was putting the sliced fruits on the cake with methodical precision, creating concentric circles of different colors. Shiro followed his example, but he was not as into decorating, as much as he was into observing Keith work.

At some point, Keith asked him to fetch another kind of fruit, that resembled grapes, but it was beige and tasted sweeter than grapes. They used it to finish the decoration, then stared at their creation. Somehow they had managed – or better, Keith did – to make it look as appealing as an Earth cake.

Curious about the taste of the whipped cream, Shiro picked up some of it with his finger, imitating Keith’s gesture, and ate it. It was a bit sourer than what he was used to. He looked up, when he heard Keith’s laugh.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

Keith leaned over the table, grabbed his chin and kissed him. Shiro let out a soft moan when their lips met. Keith kissed him deeply for a few seconds, then pulled away from the kiss, a cheeky smile on his lips.

“You had some cream on the corner of your mouth,” he explained.

Shiro let out a flustered laugh.

“Is this a revenge for earlier, when I licked your fingers?” he asked.

“Not revenge,” said Keith. “Merely a payback.”

They both looked at the cake. Now they only had to put it in the fridge and wait for the evening, when they would have eaten it with nunvil.

“Do you want to pass off this cake as yours?” asked Keith.

Shiro made a disheartened face. “No one would believe me. Do you want to see my previous results?”

Keith chuckled. “Are they that terrible?”

Shiro went to pick up his previous disaster, hidden under a towel, in the corner of the kitchen. He then dropped the burnt mess in front of Keith.

“Here,“ he said.

Keith laughed. “It looks like a mountain!” he exclaimed. “Not a cake!”

“You don’t have to make fun of me like this, you know?” said Shiro, only half-annoyed.

Keith looked back at the cake they made together.

“Yeah, it’s impossible to pass this off as your cake,” he admitted.

Shiro pouted.

“But,” said Keith, and pressed a kiss on his cheek. “Look at the results of our joint action. I wouldn’t have made something like this alone.”

Shiro turned his head to kiss him properly.

“I know you’re saying this only to make me feel better,” he said, pulling away from the kiss. “But… thank you.”

They heard voices coming from outside the room and Hunk and Lance walked into the kitchen a few moments later. Hunk took a quick look at the cake.

“There’s no way you did this one alone,” he said.

“No,” admitted Shiro. “Keith helped me. Turns out, he’s a pretty good baker.”

Keith crossed his arms and put on a smug face. He felt Shiro’s hand on his shoulder.

“Ready for the party, now?” he asked.

“Ready,” said Keith.


End file.
